The Summer Inter-High was nearing. The Fukurodani Academy was giving their all in practice. Every thing was in shape until a certain someone disrupted our practice.
"Akaashi-san! Are you here?" speak of the devil she's here already. The one who gave misery to my after-school practices.
"Bokuto-san, please hide me using your huge build." I said as I hid behind his back.
"Eh? Akaashi? Why?" he asked me innocently.
"It's because due to my slender build I knew I could successfully use you as a hiding place with that enormous build of yours." I explained as I brought my imaginary glasses up on the bridge of my nose.
"I'm not asking why you choose me as your hiding place! I'm asking why are you hiding!" he shouted at me, a vein popping on his temple.
"Oh. The reason for that is a certain someone started to pester me every after-school practice which will be awful for me because if the official setter of this powerhouse team is unable to practice before the Inter-High I will produce unsatisfactory results which may result in-"
"Oi! Don't make this difficult! Just cut right straight into the point!" more veins started to pop on Bokuto's face.
"Katsumi-san wants me to ditch practice and make me tag along everywhere she goes."
"See? It's not hard, isn't it? Explain things that are easy to understand, Akaashi!" he sighed as he asked me again. "Then why don't you tell her straight to her face that you need to practice? She's my sister, she'll understand."
"Ah, correction Bokuto-san. She will not understand. That's because if Katsumi-san wants something, she'll do anything just so she could get it. Since she inherited your stubbornness and mood swings, she will surely hold a tantrum." I explained as I brought my imaginary glasses up to the bridge of my nose, again.
"Is that what you think of me?!"
"Yes."
"Don't just agree immediately! You should say 'I'm just kidding, Bokuto-san' or something like that!" he said angrily as he tried to mimic my voice which was a very bad kind of mimicry I ever encountered.
"But I'm just telling the truth. And my voice doesn't sound like that."
"It does!"
"Alright, Bokuto-san. You're the best spiker in Japan."
"Eh really?!"
"I'm just kidding, Bokuto-san."
"Akaashi! You're late!"
"The fact that what I said isn't true is because they are clearly other players who surpassed you. Like, Ushijima-san and Sakusa-san and-"
"That's enough, Akaashi! You're hurting my pride!"
"Found you, Akaashi-san." a female voice joined the conversation. I flinched as I felt my chill run down my spine. I slowly turned and saw Katsumi's face wearing a terrifying expression.
"Katsumi-san, I decided that I would not follow you anymore. That's because the Inter-High Preliminaries are nearing and I need all the time to practice my tosses and coordination with everyone." I quickly said to her, turning down the offer she hadn't even said yet.
"Oi Akaashi! I thought you said you wouldn't say that to her!" Bokuto retorted as he pointed a finger at me.
"What are you talking about, Akaashi-san? I was going to ask you to teach me to toss. Are you busy?" she asked me with knitted eyebrows.
"I am not busy. I'll gladly teach you how to toss, Katsumi-san."
"Oi! You're contradicting your earlier self, Akaashi!" Bokuto once again pointed his index finger at me.
I started teaching Katsumi the basics when tossing, I told her to try to toss to Bokuto.
I threw the ball at her and Bokuto started running towards the net. Katsumi tossed it but unfortunately the ball hit Bokuto's face.
"Ah. I made a mistake." Katsumi said emotionless.
"Oi Katsumi! Toss the ball where my hand will reach it! Don't toss it to my face!" Bokuto reprimanded Katsumi, multiple veins popping on his face.
"Ten out of ten, Katsumi-san." I said as I held out a cardboard with the number ten written on it.
"Oi Akaashi! Don't just score her suddenly! You'll just encourage her!" Bokuto was now shouting at me.
"Ah I'm sorry Bokuto-san, but that toss was wonderful." I told him. "Huh?! What's so wonderful about that?! It hit my face!"
"That is the reason why it's wonderful."
"Hmph! I'll make sure you'll score me ten out of ten too!" he stomped as he grabbed the ball.
"That's what you're concerned about?!" Konoha who had been watching us the whole time left his comment to Bokuto.
Bokuto threw the ball upward as he ran. He jumped and spiked the ball. The ball hit the ground with a loud thud. That serve was good. "Hah! Aren't I amazing, Akaashi?"
"Ten out of one hundred." I announced as I raised a cardboard with the number ten written on it. "Gah! That's like one over ten, Akaashi!"
"Oh, you calculated that? I thought you suck at Mathematics, Bokuto-san."
Bokuto had his face and body on the floor, his complexion was white as paper. I could see his soul leaving his body through his mouth.
I got near him and started tracing his body with a white chalk and putting yellow police tape near it.
"Oi Bokuto is still alive! Don't make it look like a murder scene!" Konoha yelled.
Everything finally settled down, well maybe not everything. Bokuto was still lying on the floor, motionless.
Practice was over and all of us started cleaning the gym up. Katsumi approached me as I was mopping the gym floors.
"Hey Akaashi-san. Are you free tonight?" she asked me. "Yeah. Why?"
"Well, there's this place I wanted to visit for a long time. And neither my friends and teammates are free so..." she explained as she looked down and rubbed the top of her foot on the floor.
"Why don't you ask Bokuto-sa-!" Konoha suddenly covered my mouth and whispered in my ear. "Oi! Don't ruin the mood! She's clearly asking you out on a date!"
My eyes widen as I removed his hand from my mouth. "A date?!" I could hear dramatic music around me.
The two of us turned our backs at Katsumi and started to whisper loudly at each other.
"Are you sure, Konoha-san?"
"Yeah, it looks obvious man."
I nodded as I whipped out my notebook from my shorts. "Eh? That was there the whole time?"
I started scribbling on the notebook as I began to mumble to myself. "I didn't predicted this. That means Katsumi-san is slowly being unpredictable. In order to accurately predict her next movements and decisions, I must work hard at predicting Katsumi-san and Bokuto-san or my whole life will be in danger. In order to do that-"
"That's what you're concern about, Akaashi!?"
"I'm done taking counter measures, Konoha-san. I even predicted her next move." I said as I brought my imaginary glasses up once again.
"That't not what you should be worrying about!"
I handed my notebook to Konoha so he could read the new content I just wrote a few moments ago. I faced Katsumi and said, "Katsumi-san, are you going to invite me to a garden that is being lit up with LED lights?"
"Oh! That's right! How did you know?" Katsumi tiltled her head a little. "I just guessed it though."
"Katsumi-san will invite me to go with her to a garden that is being illuminated with colorful LED lights..." I heard Konoha read it from my notebook. He looked at me with a blank expression, maybe indicated he's done with me. "Akaashi, you should stop this thing. It's scary how you predicted it so accurately."
I gave him a thumbs up. He slapped my hand and threw the notebook at my face, it's sharp edge hitting my forehead, "You're creepy, Akaashi!"
Due to the damage I received from the notebook's pointed edge that pierced through my forehead, I laid on the ground motionless with blood running down from my forehead.
"Konoha-san! You killed Akaashi-san!" Katsumi shouted as terror was present on her face.
"Oi Akaashi stand up." Konoha began shaking my body.
"Huh?! Who is the bastard that killed Akaashi?! Akaashi! Wake up! I can't live without your tosses!" Bokuto began to wail as he dramatically knelt down.
"Gah Bokuto! You're alive!"
After cleaning up and changing clothes, everyone went home while me and Katsumi-san went to the garden she was talking about.
For some reason, she didn't want to tag Bokuto along so we left him behind. When I asked her why, this was her response.
"Well that's because I know he'll get lost in there. One time when our family went to a garden maze, Nii-chan lost his way and it took us until night to find him. It was a pain in the ass, really."
We bought our tickets and finally entered the garden. We also bought ourselves some freshly cooked hotdogs with ketchup and mustard on top.
The two of us started roaming around the garden. The colorful light illuminated the whole garden beautifully. There were variety of colors and plants to look at. It was a mesmerizing sight.
Katsumi gasped as her eyes lit up. She quickly finished her food and grabbed my wrist as she began running, tagging me along with her.
She led me to a big tree with LED lights attached to its branches. The wires were put on nicely and the colors were changing slowly. It looked like a tree that came from a fairy tale.
"Akaashi-san! Look! It's so pretty!" Katsumi exclaimed as she looked at me while pointing at the tree.
She smiled very widely at me and proceeded to look at the tree once again. I just stared at her as my lips curved into a smile. "The view is really beautiful, Katsumi-san."
Katsumi turned her head at me and smiled widely once again, "Thank you for coming with me, Akaashi-san!"
I only smiled at her as I pat her head.
EXTRA:
Konoha: Oh! Katsumi! What are you writing?
Katsumi: Oh, I'm writing a manga.
Komi: I didn't know you could draw, Katsumi.
Katsumi: Oh, I'm not the one drawing. Akaashi-san is!
Konoha: Eh?! Akaashi you could draw?
Akaashi: Perhaps.
Konoha: What do you mean 'perhaps'?!
Akaashi: Next time! In the next issue, will I show my drawings skills or not?
Katsumi: I thought you didn't like spin-offs.
Akaashi: Oh I don't. But you guys are doing so it so I thought I will too.
KEIJI AKAASHI FOR YOU MY FELLOW AKAASHI STANS: